Turkey says it is ready to resume its role as honest broker in indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria, but may find it hard to put that plan into action after its relations with Israel turned sour earlier this year, observers say.In a significant foreign policy breakthrough for Turkey, Ankara last year organised indirect talks between Israel and Syria about the future of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in 1967.
The talks were suspended when Israel attacked the Gaza strip in December. One month later, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, walked out of a panel discussion about the Gaza operation with Israel's president, Shimon Peres, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, a decision that earned him praise and even hero status in parts of the Middle East but also damaged Turkish-Israeli relations.
“Turkey has lost its credibility as a fair player in the eyes of the Israelis,” Semih Idiz, a foreign policy columnist with the Turkish newspaper Milliyet, said yesterday.Before a one-day visit to Syria this week, Mr Erdogan said that Turkey was willing to bring the two sides together again. “There was a process of five rounds in Syrian-Israeli relations,” he said in Ankara. “Now, there may be new requests for this process; as a matter of fact requests have started to arrive,” he said, adding that Turkey was getting ready for a new start.
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Mr Erdogan did not specify which country had asked Turkey to resume its mediation. Turkish media reported yesterday that Syria's president, Bashar Assad, asked Mr Erdogan to reactivate the Turkish role during their meeting in Aleppo on Wednesday. Mr Idiz said the position of the Syrian president may be tactical. “Assad would like Turkey to be involved, because he knows that Netanyahu doesn't,” he said.
It is unclear at the moment whether Mr Netanyahu's right-wing government, which came to power after the Syrian talks were suspended, is interested in a restart of the indirect negotiations. The decision of the Obama administration to step up US efforts to find peace for the Middle East and its willingness to engage with Syria may also influence the fate of future contacts between Tel Aviv and Damascus.
“A new game is beginning,” Arif Keskin, a Middle East analyst at the Turkish Centre for International Relations and Strategic Analysis, a think-tank in Ankara, said yesterday. The Davos incident had damaged relations between the countries, but both sides were ready to move forward, he said.When Turkey's parliament passed a law providing the framework for the removal of mines along the Turkish-Syrian border last month, that step was seen as an olive branch from Ankara to Israel, because the regulations favour Israeli companies. At the same time, Israel is keen to have Turkey on its side in the ongoing confrontation with Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme, Mr Keskin said.
The most important question was the role of the United States, he said. “The Bush administration did not want Turkey to get involved” in brokering talks between Israel and Syria, but now the Americans provided support. As a result, “there could be a process with four players instead of three”, Mr Keskin added, referring to a possible involveme
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document.write(''); Turkey's peace role in question
Thomas Seibert, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: July 24. 2009 12:30AM UAE / July 23. 2009 8:30PM GMT
The Syrian president Bashar Assad, left, meets Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Aleppo, Syria. EPA
ISTANBUL // Turkey says it is ready to resume its role as honest broker in indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria, but may find it hard to put that plan into action after its relations with Israel turned sour earlier this year, observers say.In a significant foreign policy breakthrough for Turkey, Ankara last year organised indirect talks between Israel and Syria about the future of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in 1967.
The talks were suspended when Israel attacked the Gaza strip in December. One month later, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, walked out of a panel discussion about the Gaza operation with Israel's president, Shimon Peres, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, a decision that earned him praise and even hero status in parts of the Middle East but also damaged Turkish-Israeli relations.
“Turkey has lost its credibility as a fair player in the eyes of the Israelis,” Semih Idiz, a foreign policy columnist with the Turkish newspaper Milliyet, said yesterday.Before a one-day visit to Syria this week, Mr Erdogan said that Turkey was willing to bring the two sides together again. “There was a process of five rounds in Syrian-Israeli relations,” he said in Ankara. “Now, there may be new requests for this process; as a matter of fact requests have started to arrive,” he said, adding that Turkey was getting ready for a new start.
document.write('');
Mr Erdogan did not specify which country had asked Turkey to resume its mediation. Turkish media reported yesterday that Syria's president, Bashar Assad, asked Mr Erdogan to reactivate the Turkish role during their meeting in Aleppo on Wednesday. Mr Idiz said the position of the Syrian president may be tactical. “Assad would like Turkey to be involved, because he knows that Netanyahu doesn't,” he said.
It is unclear at the moment whether Mr Netanyahu's right-wing government, which came to power after the Syrian talks were suspended, is interested in a restart of the indirect negotiations. The decision of the Obama administration to step up US efforts to find peace for the Middle East and its willingness to engage with Syria may also influence the fate of future contacts between Tel Aviv and Damascus.
“A new game is beginning,” Arif Keskin, a Middle East analyst at the Turkish Centre for International Relations and Strategic Analysis, a think-tank in Ankara, said yesterday. The Davos incident had damaged relations between the countries, but both sides were ready to move forward, he said.When Turkey's parliament passed a law providing the framework for the removal of mines along the Turkish-Syrian border last month, that step was seen as an olive branch from Ankara to Israel, because the regulations favour Israeli companies. At the same time, Israel is keen to have Turkey on its side in the ongoing confrontation with Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme, Mr Keskin said.
The most important question was the role of the United States, he said. “The Bush administration did not want Turkey to get involved” in brokering talks between Israel and Syria, but now the Americans provided support. As a result, “there could be a process with four players instead of three”, Mr Keskin added, referring to a possible involvement of the US, Turkey, Israel and Syria.But Mr Idiz said it was difficult to see what role was left for Turkey once the Americans stepped in. “Why would anybody need Turkey then?” Even the Syrians had described the US as the main player, he said. Ankara seems aware of the difficulties. Ahmet Davutoglu, the foreign minister, said last month that Turkey would resume its role only if both Israel and Syria were ready. The minister appeared to dampen expectations that his country would soon regain its role as an honest broker, stressing that Turkey was not pushing for the talks to begin again.
“Turkey has never insisted on being a mediator,” he said.Traditionally, Ankara has been the closest partner of Israel in the Middle East region. Both countries are secular republics and allies of the United States. Turkey, despite being a predominantly Muslim nation, was one of the first countries to recognise the Jewish state in 1949, and the two countries have had a close military relationship since 1996. But critics say that Turkey has distanced itself from Israel under Mr Erdogan's religiously conservative government, opting for closer ties with the Muslim world in general and countries such as Syria in particular.
During his short visit to Syria this week, Mr Erdogan showed no signs of softening his stance on Israel. “Were 1,500 people killed in Gaza? Were women, children, people killed? Were close to 5,000 people injured? They were,” Mr Erdogan was quoted on the Turkish news channel CNN-Turk.Mr Erdogan also criticised Israel for still restricting access to the Gaza Strip. “At the moment, we can only send in food and medicine,” he said. “But we still cannot send in concrete, [building] iron, this and that. When will those doors be opened?”
tseibert@thenational.ae
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